Well, the evil empire of Christmas Merchandising has raked in their haul for another year and some have even found ways to squeeze out even more dollars between now and the first weeks of the new year. The Dow average moved into uncharted waters again during the final days before Christmas.
The financial giants of the investment houses are getting ready to grab what little is left for the less than one-percent (notice how many one-percent movie stars are dumping their multimillion-dollar homes for half-price lately). Warren Buffett is even reported as being concerned while answering questions for six hours at the Berkshire-Hathaway annual stockholders meeting this month in Nebraska. Payton Manning is using the Omaha at the moment.
The reading of the tea leaves isn't looking good, all-the-while, the economy is bustling according to Washington and some noted pundits of the blog-o-spheres that sometimes seem to be running up and down the pole like gale warning flags on the seashores marinas. Come on 2015!!
I've done something unusual this year. I cut the thermostat back to 60 degrees and put on a sweater. At night, the top sheet and a downed comforter makes for the best sleep that I have had in years. It's been worth it too. Checking my dashboard for my electric usage made me almost choke as I took a swig of coffee just before reading that normal usage for users was 1300 kWh and my like users were 650 kWh. The chocking swig came when the sea saw chart said that I was at 303 kWh for the month with only a few days to go in the billing cycle. That fact with gasoline prices at $1.84 at my last fill-up two days ago combined with my 10-percent senior citizens discount at K-rogers with their electronic coupons on featured items is fantastic. Also, being in or out of the donut hole at the pharmacist ( I can never remember which one--in or out- gets me free prescriptions during December). All that made me yump for joy (that's a Cuban thing from an old friend who called our mutual friend Joyce--Yoyce ). Yes, Virginia, there really is a way to not give the Edison companies such easy money. I'm still rather put out that TXU built six new coal-gas generating power plants to "help" the grid then watch their parent company file Chapter 11. That left the consumer on the hook to pay for their infrastructure.Their profit-rich delivery system, Oncor, is ripe for some energy financial to pluck them up and make a few more millions, or billions, in the bottom-line of someone's financials. That will take more years to figure out who really did end up with the balance sheet rich with profits.
For many years, marketing put food on my table. For that, I am thankful. But, when you pull back on the zoom lens and see the wider picture as a whole, you begin to see that the education to learn the marketing game really only served to make me a better shopper than most of my peers. That's not the glorified, award-winning (though, I have won a few of those) career success story (and I have had a more successful career than most). In short-- it's all a big perception game. Last week pointed that out to me more than anything else of recent days.
While at Love Field shooting some live feed images of the Southwest pickets by the Local 555 of the Transport Workers Union, a situation developed right in front of me. I walked over and instinctively snapped a couple of shots of what had just happened. Almost immediately, a guy yells out-"We don't want any pictures". I walked away going back to the pickets. Although, I was on public right-of-way of the public street where the guy was standing and yelling he didn't want pictures.
The Southwest "ramp rats" (in the airport business that 's what they are called) even in their labor dispute still had some humor for not having a pay-increase in six years. They also had the humor to find a big inflatable rat as their mascot. Still, the image that I had just seen weighed on my mind. Deep down inside, I knew that I should have submitted the image to the live feeds because it was a troubling image involving two big beautiful draft horses who were now suffering and in pain. It didn't help knowing that the vet said to me earlier last month that my cat was suffering with cancer. Since then, and just beginning to recover from my grieving was a situation that caused harm to big animals during transportation that were not even mine or me knowing anything about their history. Yet, they were animals hurt unnecessarily and suffered because of it.
Yes, it is a perception thing that swings the pendulum of the universe. First it's a flash of light for billions of light years away. Then, it's the birth of a new galaxy, then a star in that galaxy--you get the point......the end result is a view of a giant astroid heading straight at you. Not exactly what it was perceived as in the beginning. And yet, the bottom line is that it really doesn't matter in the end other than how you perceive yourself and your family, hopefully with a belief of a higher power who set this all in motion as an emotion or just having fun to see what we do with his curves in the road.
The first thing I thought about when I awoke this morning was how I miss the Dawg. This being the first Christmas without her, I did wish her a Merry Christmas where ever her spirit might be. As the morning progressed through the coffee pot markings, my favorite classical station filled the room with Christmas and post Christmas pieces. For me, that's a quasi-lethal combination. My mind, when combined with classical music and coffee, makes the most creative times for me. Albeit, coupled with a pen and paper or a computer program with Word or some such typewriter-like device. While I can write legiably very fast, I've always been able to type with accuracy at a three-digit wpm rate since high school. Still, my mind was processing the "what to do" question about the extra two or three shots from Love Field. They are not as graphic as the one that I will probably post here but from the perception point of view, it solves the issue of the first couple of shots for the moment. In fact, I will most likely make a posting totally on that event somewhere down the line in the new year. It is coming to a head, so-to-speak with the new reality show in January of transporting large animals as a business. Mostly, the show will feature people who transport zoo animals to and fro. My question immediately is why do they have to be transported at all? Unless for an emergency but certainly not creating an emergency in transporting an animal. It's money, mostly but that's a perception isn't it?
Well, two pictures for you this winter holiday afternoon.
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| The Ramp Rat Mascot from the Local 555 Transport Workers at Southwest Airlines.Even Herb would like the Mascot! |
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Residue from the animal accident (This is not the most graphic shot).
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1] 12-26 Edited caption to remove duplicated word
2] edited paragraph 4 for more clear word flow |
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